Apologies if this is the wrong section for this type of question but nowhere else seemed to fit.
To make using a computer easier with my disability I have my Mac Mini Aluminium (circa mid 2010) wired up to a 52" plasma screen which is about 8 feet from my comfy armchair. On my lap I have a sort of breakfast table with room for an wireless Apple keyboard and an Apple "Magic" mouse. I have had this whole thing, set up exactly as it is now, since the Mac Mini was delivered, brand new, from the Apple Store.
For the first year or so everything was peachy. I have changed the batteries in this keyboard twice using standard AA batteries (non re-chargeable) and the mouse batteries a lot more times than that using both chargeable or non re-chargeable but never mixing the two.
OK, the problem is that I'll be doing general stuff with the mouse and it will just stop moving. After a few seconds an image pops up on screen showing a mouse along with the message "Connection Lost". But then, after maybe 10 seconds or so, the image pops up again but this time the message says "Connection Found" and the mouse is good to go. This can happen 5 or 6 times in a night.
If I check the mouse in System Prefs it is still showing 100% and, still using the same batteries the mouse will carry on working for another few weeks.
Does anybody have any clues as to how I can stop this from happening? Under normal circumstances a minute with no mouse is no big deal but when you are in the middle of a Poker tournament and you get kicked off the table for not responding in time (by clicking on one of several buttons) it can make you spit.
Cheers,
Steve

The trouble with letting people like me loose on the interweb with a debit card is that I now have the latest Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, 320 HDD and OS X 10.6.5 all wired up to a 70" LED screen ...... And not the faintest idea of how to use it.

From experience it seems the battery level does not read very accurately. Personally keep a register of battery replacements, for keyboard the same as yours about every ten months using Energizer Lithium Ultimate batteries, and about eight weeks for the mouse.

This battery level reading was allegedly to be corrected with OS X.7.3, however time will tell. Saw nothing on this on release notes.

The mouse battery level seems stuck on 100% for six weeks, drops to 99% for a week and a half then starts to fall away sharply. Currently trying out some of the new lithium rechargables to see how long they last.

Play online contract bridge so purchased a spare MM with new batteries turned off on standby. Hope this helps Steve.

Hang on to those original install discs like grim death! Using OS X.7 or later make a bootable USB thumb drive before running Installer!

If you have other bluetooth enabled devices nearby, or anything else transmitting in the 2.4GHz bands (excepting your router of course) - try turning them off. There are coexistence mechanisms but it could be something as simple as interference - if it's not the batteries.